Harry Reid: “my good friend from Utah, for whom I have the greatest respect got a little carried away this morning. I don't think he…”

“my good friend from Utah, for whom I have the greatest respect got a little carried away this morning. I don't think he would purposely call me or my colleagues incompetent--but he did. I don't think he would call us silly or stupid, but he did. The word ``inane,'' in a dictionary, means silly or stupid. We have a philosophical difference in what we are doing here. The fact that we disagree with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee does not mean we are incompetent. It doesn't mean we are stupid. It just demonstrates that we have a basic disagreement. Mr. President, I want to go back and start where the majority started this morning, with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee on Commerce-State-Justice. Among other things, he said we were crying crocodile tears over here, and that this piece of legislation only dealt with criminals. I am paraphrasing what the other side said, but not too much. In actuality they said was that ``criminals were coming in, and attempting to do an end run to get citizenship.'' The fact is, I take great exception to that. The Democratic proposal would not allow criminals to become citizens. First, this legislation is not offering citizenship. We are offering longtime residents, people who are already in this country, the ability to apply for permanent residency and then perhaps apply for citizenship. Second, anyone applying for residency must have good moral character.…”